Page 71 of Distant Shores (Stapled Magnolias #2)

ADAIR

T he cafeteria was thick with chatter, the air warm from the steaming buffet platters of food and the influx of bodies.

Pops and Beck had both wanted to come here instead of going back up to the apartment, which had surprised me, but I’d gotten them situated as quickly as possible at a table with Jillie and Rachel.

Which wasn’t very quickly with this crowd.

Jillie raised her brows at me knowingly, but I just grimaced as I pulled out my phone and checked it again. It’d been twenty minutes since I told Ireland we were in here.

Sweat beaded on my spine, and I yanked off my suit jacket to drape it on the chair before unbuttoning a couple of my shirt buttons and pushing my hair off my face.

Lordy.

Cole sauntered up and put his and Delly’s plates down with a clatter. He might’ve said something to me, but I didn’t catch it, as I spotted Liem and Cody walk past the cafeteria doors.

They might know where she went .

I leaned down to Delly and whispered, “You’ve got the guys?”

She scanned my face, the frown on hers turning into a huge smile before she nodded enthusiastically. I squeezed her shoulder and glanced around the room one more time, in case I’d missed her.

Impossible.

She could be anywhere.

The Cadillac, maybe?

I left the cafeteria, wincing at the stiffness in my ankle. I’d wrapped it up tight and let out my shoelaces for extra room, but I was paying for being on it for so long.

The quiet in the hallway was an instant relief, and I drew in a deep breath before hurrying to catch up with Cody and Liem, favoring my right foot more the longer I went.

“Liem,” I called, running out of steam right before they made it to the front doors.

They turned toward me, their eyebrows raised expectantly.

“Have either of you seen Ireland?”

Liem shook his head as Cody reached behind him and pushed the door open, and a wave of hot, humid air wafted in.

“Pretty sure I saw her haul ass out of here on that longboard,” Cody said, gesturing to the open door. “Or… roll ass, I guess. We should get a couple of those, Ti Bet.” His brow furrowed before he grimaced and shook his head. “Forget I said that.”

Liem laughed, light as air, and Cody smiled at him before they looked at me expectantly again.

“You gonna go find her, or…?” Cody asked, cocking an eyebrow as he drew out the last word .

My heart leapt, and I nodded, taking a determined step forward.

With my left foot.

Cody’s reflexes were fast . He grabbed my arms, keeping me from tumbling over as my ankle gave out. “No need to fucking swoon,” he muttered under his breath.

That was it. I was going to double my PT starting next week, or simply never leave the house on Camellia Lane again. I could not continue living like this.

The door slid shut as he guided me to the nearest bench and forced me to sit.

“Want to take my ride?” Liem asked kindly, offering me his keys. “And maybe… get a crutch too?”

“Or a sturdy stick,” Cody drawled, and I couldn’t help but laugh as I took off my glasses and rubbed my eyes.

I saw why he and Ireland got along.

“No, I can….” I put my glasses back on and reached for my keys, but remembered they were in my jacket pocket.

I muttered a curse under my breath, then patted my pants pocket, sighing in relief when I felt the box.

At least I had that.

“I’ll drive the Vespa around for you,” Liem said before easing out the door, leaving me and Cody in the small, quiet foyer.

I sat there like a moron, squeezing my eyes shut as I silently begged the universe for a break.

As if on cue, I started sweating again.

Great.

“You okay over there, mon frère?”

I dropped my head back against the wall. “I will be.”

Liem pulled up on a shiny Vespa scooter a few moments later, and Cody offered me his hand, easily pulling me up. He stayed close as I limped outside, then shoved a helmet on my head when we got to the scooter.

Watch me crash this thing right into the side of the Locc.

With a soft smile from Liem and a clap on the shoulder from Cody, I was off. Thankfully, I’d grown up driving all kinds of vehicles across the acres of Pops’s property, so by the time I’d made the short trek to Camellia Lane, I had the hang of it.

Just as the front door closed behind me, my phone buzzed in my pocket.

Ireland

I’m at the pier. The one we went to on your birthday.

I sighed in relief, then typed out a response as I went to my room and grabbed my old crutch.

Stay right there.

Please.

Thank you, universe.

Squinting against the descending sun, I pep talked myself all the way to the pier, my crutch propped between my legs as I wound through the influx of tourists here for the holiday weekend.

Nearly thirty years of existence had led me to this moment.

And I really needed not to crash. Or fall.

I pulled into the tiny gravel bank that served as a parking lot, heart rate ticking up when I realized I was the only one here.

Had she boarded the entire way?

I took off the helmet and hung it on the handle before running my hands through my hair, halfheartedly trying to tame it. Then I closed my eyes and dropped my head back, taking a moment to listen to the crashing waves and the calls of the shorebirds.

She was here.

I felt it. Knew it in my bones.

Something splattered my cheek, and for a wild second I remembered melting snow in winter-swept woods, but I shook the memory off and hurriedly wiped away the raindrop from my cheek.

The very warm raindrop.

Swinging off the Vespa with the help of the crutch, I walked to the pier, forcing my breaths to steady.

Four steps up, and there she was. Her back was to me as she faced the horizon, hair and dress blowing in the soft breeze. She was barefoot, with her head tipped back.

Seven more across the boards, and I could count the rain drops dotting her dress.

Had we felt raindrops on our skin at the same time? Did hers bring demons too?

I moved faster then, my uneven steps creating a lopsided cadence on the boards. When I was close enough for the breeze to bring me her lavender scent, the rain cleared as quickly as it had come.

She didn’t look my way when I stepped up to her side and propped my crutch on the railing, mirroring the position of her board on the other side.

Her face remained a mask of contemplation as I unbuttoned my shirt, shucked it off my shoulders, and pressed it to the exposed skin of her back, wiping away the rain as best I could.

It wasn’t until I lifted the shirt away that she moved, reaching back and grabbing for the fabric, keeping me from taking it away.

There was a pause the length of a heartbeat before she tugged. Understanding her unspoken command, I draped the shirt over her shoulders, and she burrowed into it, pushing her cheek into her shoulder and taking a deep inhale.

For a good while, we just watched the water together, our forearms propped on the railing. The waves, the retreating tide, the arcs of saltwater cutting into the miles of beach. I snuck glances at her often, and the soft smile that bloomed on her face told me she knew it.

My own smile was impossible to hide as I looked at the beach again just in time to track a great blue heron as it waded in the water. Ireland slid closer to me as I watched it, resting her head on my shoulder.

“The crutch?” she asked quietly.

“Temporary.”

She sighed against me, then pulled away.

I slid my gaze to her, watching as she rolled her lips together and fixed her gaze on the water again.

This time, it felt… different.

“I have questions, Adair.” Her voice was so quiet, but flat, as if she was bracing for impact.

I reached into my pocket as the Gulf breeze swept away the speech I’d agonized over for weeks.

“ With everything they had.”

Beck’s words came easily, and this decision even more so.

I only had me, and that’s what I would offer her.

“Ireland.”

She raised her gaze to me, her hair blowing across her face. I reached for her, tucking her soft hair behind her ear.

“My Indigo Girl.”

Her lips parted, and I took a step back on the ankle I’d had repaired for this exact moment .

In one controlled, smooth movement, I sank to one knee.

My ankle held even as my hands shook, and I opened the wooden ring box.

Ireland’s deep blue eyes widened before brimming with so much relief that my soul ached for her. For her pain. For everything that’d happened to make our meeting possible.

For all that would come.

“I have a question too.”

One tear slipped loose, painting her cheek, and then she nodded.

“Will you marry me?”

A small sound escaped her before her shoulders caved in.

I didn’t panic. I didn’t even move. I’d ask her seven times if I had to. In seven different ways, with seven different rings.

Her gaze finally traveled to the ring, and she studied it for several seconds before she lifted her gaze to mine again in silent question.

“Pops proposed to Grams with this ring. Two weeks after meeting her.”

Her tears streamed down hard as she asked, her voice barely more than a whisper, “ Why ?”

The same question she’d asked that day in the Cadillac when she didn’t understand why my heart raced for her.

I looked right at her as I gave the same answers I hadn’t voiced then, and the ones I’d discovered since. “Because I look for you in every room. And in every dream.”

I lowered the ring, and her eyes flared with panic, but I kept on.

“Because you feel like home. And because I love you.” I opened my arms in subtle invitation.

“Because when the sun comes up tomorrow, I will still love you. No matter what the day brings. Even if I forgot you, Ireland, even if my mind went dark and my life felt like nothing but an empty room, I would still want to dance in it with you.”

She fell to her knees in front of me and I reached for her in a panic, worried she hurt herself. My button up flew off her shoulders and caught on the railing as she threw herself into my open arms.

I wrapped them around her and hugged her to me with a deep sigh of relief and contentment. “I love you, Ireland.”

She shook harder, and I settled us against the railing, one hand closed around the ring box and the other cradling her head. Her tears wet my undershirt, replacing the dried raindrops, and I felt my own carving a path down my cheeks.

Then, there were lips at my throat, and I was back in the Cadillac, my mind still unable to process that this woman was kissing me. Would want to kiss me.

My entire body came alight with her touch, and then I heard the word.

“ Yes .”

I pulled back and searched her eyes.

“I love you,” she whispered. “I love you, Adair. And I want to live my life with you.”

I was floating somewhere above us, watching it all. But then I tried to move my foot, and my ankle twinged, the sharp pain bringing me back into my body.

But that was how it’d always been with us.

What was pleasure without pain?

Her warm hand pushed my hair back, and I focused on that, shuddering when she ran her knuckles over my cheekbone. “Can I see? ”

My heart that only beats for you? Go ahead and cut it out. It’s right here.

“The ring,” she said, smiling at what had to be a dumbfounded expression, given I’d just realized my mouth was hanging open.

I opened my palm, and her fingertips grazed the sensitive skin of my wrist as she took the box from my hands.

Ireland slowly took the ring out of the box. Instead of looking at it more closely, she cocked her head and pulled out a folded piece of paper from inside the box.

One that I’d forgotten about until this moment.

She kept a tight hold on the ring as she unfolded the paper.

I was tachycardic again, my heart beating faster than a war drum and louder than the crashing shore as Ireland swept her finger across the wet wooden board beside us and then pressed it to the sticky note. With a glimmer in her eyes, she passed it to me.

Eternity begins and ends with the ocean’s tides

Will you marry me?

Yes

No

She’d filled in the “yes” box with a raindrop.

“My backup plan,” I whispered, voice choked with emotion. “One of many. ”

I held my breath, not sure if I should cry some more or laugh in joy as she offered the ring to me, the sapphire gemstone shining as bright as her eyes.

My hands didn’t tremble this time as I cradled her hand in mine and slid the ring on.

It was the beginning. Of me giving her my everything, and her giving me the same.

Together, to whatever distant shore.

The End